Despite the formidable opponent Scorsese's Oscar buzz-generating The Wolf of Wall Street appeared, it did not have enough pull to say The Lord of the Rings fans who flocked for the third consecutive week to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug remain at number one.

The sequel to last year's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey earned $29.8 million this week, while Frozen was bumped up one spot from last week to number two with $28.8 million. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues fell to number three with its $20.1 million draw, and American Hustle stayed put at number four with $19.5 million. The Wolf of Wall Street debuted at number five with $18.5 million.

The 48-year-old actress - who played Charlotte Yorke in the hit films and long-running HBO series - has hinted that a third movie could be on the cards as there have been multiple discussions, but nothing has been agreed yet.

"I'm going to have a little talk with [co-star] Cynthia [Nixon] the next time I see her! I don't think [a third film] is a pipe dream, there is discussion. People talk about it amongst the people who are the players, but I don't know if it will come together. It would be very exciting if it did," she said.

At present, the brunette beauty is focusing on being a mother to her two-year-old adoptive daughter Gemma and is in no hurry to throw herself back into a movie project. "The greatest luxury is being home in the morning when my daughter wakes up and not have to go anywhere. I have a beautiful home, a beautiful yard and a lot of food. If Gemma and I could just be there, I could probably go a long time without leaving," she explained.

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Saoirse Ronan felt "really disappointed" to turn down a role in The Hobbit.

The 19-year-old actress was rumored to be starring in the three part fantasy adventure, directed by Peter Jackson - whom she had previously worked with on The Lovely Bones - but decided it would be better to focus on other projects.

"There was talks about me playing the wood elf Itaril but I had to turn it down. I was really disappointed but there were other projects I had to consider and to spend a year doing The Hobbit wouldn't have left me time for anything else," she said.

The Irish star is currently filming Ryan Gosling's How to Catch a Monster, which she is finding "a bit twisted," and also has a string of other films in the pipeline. "I'm filming How to Catch a Monster, which is Ryan Gosling's writing and directing debut and it's cool, dark and a bit twisted, too. It's about an underwater town, and the struggles of the characters living in this dilapidated place. And I'm in Violet & Daisy, in which I play a hit girl. How I live Now and The Grand Budapest Hotel are all coming out in the next year. Then I'm due to play Mary Queen of Scots in a movie about her starting soon," she said.

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"Before they started shooting, back in 2008, one of the producers did ask if I would be interested. I said, 'You do know, don't you, that Aragorn isn't in The Hobbit? That there is a 60-year gap between the books?'"

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Melissa McCarthy allegedly fired an extra from her new comedy for mistreating her own child.

The Bridesmaids star - who has two children, Vivian, six, and Georgette, three, with her husband Ben Falcone - reportedly had the woman, believed to be in her twenties, removed from of the set of Tammy in Wilmington, North Carolina on Monday, after she "harshly jerked" her young child, who had accompanied her to the set.

A source told gossip website TMZ.com that the young woman had been struggling to control her child, believed to be four or five years old, all morning during the shoot by a lake, for which she was being paid $58 to be appear in a scene as an extra with 200 other people. The mother eventually lost her temper and "harshly jerked" the child up in the air by the wrist and was loud enough to disrupt the production. The incident was witnessed in full by Oscar-nominee Melissa, who is directing the movie alongside her husband, and she immediately requested that her personal assistant remove the woman, saying that she wouldn't tolerate abuse on her set.

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Jim Carrey hated dieting for his new movie. The 51-year-old actor shows off his svelte physique in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, but admitted it was tough to get in shape to play street magician Steve Gray and he was thrilled to be able to cut back on exercising after filming ended and regain the weight he lost.

"It's not a happy place to be. I'm back now. I've got Mr. Cuddly back and we're happy. It's not a natural place to live in that kind of shape. It looks great. It's fantastic and gets a lot of attention, but you have to eat, like, antimatter to stay in that kind of shape," he said.

While Jim appears topless in the movie, he insisted it won't become a regular occurrence and joked, "I figured that was Matthew McConaughey's thing."

Jim is not the only star to undertake a tough diet for a role, Hugh Jackman has admitted he consumed "nothing but water" for 36 hours to prepare for Les Miserables.

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Ian McKellen made a deal with Elijah Wood to stop him playing punk rock songs when they were filming The Hobbit.

The 73-year-old screen legend wasn't a fan of the 31-year-old actor's choice of music when they were in the make-up trailer together, so had to find a compromise which worked for them both.

"We brokered a deal, where he could have 15 minutes of music, then I could have 15 minutes of no music," McKellen told Empire.

The star had a great time reprising his role as Gandalf the wizard for the movie - a prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy - but admits some of the modern shooting techniques left him in tears. In the film, Gandalf is a huge man and in order to make the scenes with the diminutive hobbits and dwarves look convincing McKellen had to film his scenes on his own, and the process depressed him:

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Political satirist and funnyman Stephen Colbert will be appearing in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. The confirmation comes after Colbert had hinted at the cameo in Playboy's upcoming November issue: "Peter Jackson invited me to the set last year... I flew out and watched them shoot some scenes and went to some locations. I saw a 25-minute cut, and it was amazing. Jackson knows I'm a big fan of the films." When asked whether or not he would be in it himself, Colbert smiled and answered, "Could be."

There's no word yet as to who he will play, but fans of Colbert will have to wait until the second part of the trilogy to see him don the Middle Earth garb.

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Malin Akerman was star-struck when she met Tom Cruise. The 34-year-old actress couldn't believe it when she was cast alongside the Hollywood legend for Rock of Ages and was nervous about meeting him for the first time but she quickly struck up a bond with Tom.

"I still get excited by working with big names. You have that initial moment of, 'Oh my goodness, I'm going to work with Tom Cruise!' And then you meet him and in 10 minutes you realize you're both just in this together, two actors who are equally as nervous and excited to be on a new journey. And star-struck feelings go away and you become partners in crime. My dream now is to work on a big film with Tilda Swinton and Cate Blanchett," said Malin, who had to stick her tongue in the actor's ear during one memorable scene.

Although movie-goers have been kind to Madagascar 3 for the past couple weeks, it didn't quite stand a chance against the newcomer Pixar/Disney film Brave, which secured Pixar's 13th first place debut with $66.7 million.

The third Madagascar film secured its second place spot with $20.2 million while the period horror film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter debuted at number three with $16.5 million. Coming in fourth place is Prometheus with $10 million while Rock of Ages rounded out the top five with $8 million.